From the Newsroom: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat steps down

In your evening news brief, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat steps down; More than 20 lakh people were inoculated against coronavirus on March 8 and Michelle Obama will be inducted into the US National Women's Hall of Fame.

Here is the top news of March 9, 2021:

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday quit from his post amid rumblings within the party over his leadership.

The 60-year-old Rawat, who would have completed four years in office next week, handed over his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya, joining the league of chief ministers who never completed their five year tenure.

Political developments in the state went into an overdrive last weekend when the BJP high command dispatched emissaries -- Raman Singh and Dushyant Gautam -- to assess the pulse of the MLAs. The change of guard in Uttarakhand comes an year ahead of the assembly elections.

More than 20 lakh people were inoculated against coronavirus on March 8, the highest in a day so far, taking the total number of vaccine doses administered in the country to over 2.3 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

As on day-52 of the Covid-19 vaccination drive (March 8), 20,19,723 vaccine doses were given.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka continue to report a surge in the Covid-19 daily new cases. They cumulatively account for 84.04 per cent of the new cases reported in a span of 24 hours.

Former US first lady Michelle Obama will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame along with eight other women including former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, soccer icon Mia Hamm and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who died last year.

The National Women's Hall of Fame named the members of its Class of 2021 set to be inducted on Oct. 2 on Monday.